Morris Minor Owners Club

hi there, i'm a first time typer on this forum, after endless searching on the net for morrie info. i'm planning to build a v8 powered traveller, using a donor cars chassis, running gear and engine. i'm really keen to talk to people who've re-powered any morris, and used the body on a proper chassis, rather than strengthening the existing body/chassis combo. would appreciate any info and ideas, have had some pretty stupid ones myself !
many thanks
£31trav

welcome to the board. i would have thought that trying to rechassie a travler would be very difficult as there isnt a seperat chassie. I know of someone localy who has a v8 in a pickup but as these have a seperat chassie it wasnt to difficult to reenginer it. saying that i havent had any experienc personaly with this kind of work.

Edd

The Van/pickup is roughly the same as a saloon from the B post forwards, and the chassis fits in place of the same structural members in the front of the car (but on the saloons it is spot welded in place)
Therefore it may be worth looking at a Van/pickup to get good ideas were to fix the body to chassis. Second hand (rusted) chassis come up on e-bay occasionally so it may even be worth cutting off bits from a Morris chassis to uses as donor bits on your custom chassis.
Around the rear end, it's going to take a lot of fore-though to do a neat job as the wood and floor pan act together for the strenght - therefore the new chassis needs to complimewnt the existing rear floor and box sections to give your wood something to fix to.

Have a look at this site, it has a lot of good info (except on using the lowest powered V8!!!):

http://www.geocities.com/jharkola/minor.html

I was going to attempt this with my '52 but it was a bit too good to hack about and I fell in love with the sidevalve engine!!

good old cam beet me to that post, spend all after noon trying to thing of jharkola's site. Had some good emails with him about turboing a's

good old cam beet me to that post, spend all after noon trying to thing of jharkola's site

That's what bookmarks are for

very true, but the words of 'dear please dont open any attachment you dont know who are from 'being forgoten tends to loose those special favourites and documents..

bought her a laptop just for her use to stop that happening agian!

Yes, I use my own log-in on 2000 to prevent this from happening! Anyone else using the machine has their own settings to worry about! Still it's not as foolproof as buying separate laptop!!

hi all, thanks for the info, and the website - looks pretty interesting. was also wondering if anyone ever heard of a guy called nick mann. pretty sure that's his name, he built a very radical v8 minor which was featured in car magazines, probably around 10 years ago. i have obviously got some serious homework to do now . . . .
cheers
£31trav

also wondering if anyone ever heard of a guy called nick mann

Yes
If you have a look on thie Beardmore brothers site you will see his car and some of their interesting projects, however I dont know if Nicks car still exists or if he is still running it.
http://www.beardmorebros.co.uk/

thanks very much kevin. i used to drool when i saw that morris . . . .
£31trav

probably around 10 years ago

probably about 20 years ago now!

Nic Mann does not own his Minor, he sold it when they outlawed nitrous in hill climbing. It is now owned by Bill Sherrat and has seen some use on the strip. It is running a larger capacity Rover V8, still with the turbo.

Nic Mann is still hilclimbing. His vehicle is a clubmans style (front engined, single seater car with cycle front wings and enclosed rear wheels in the body work) powered by an all alloy Ford layed on its side and turbo charged. It is 4 wheel drive using 4x4 Sierra running gear.

However the real clever bit is the use of a small jet turbine to provide boost to the turbo to prevent lag. When he starts it up it whistles just like a jet.

On my site there is an article on Nics Minor.

John

thanks john, your website, and your cars area absolutely incredible. can you tell me about the front wing/low light combo that you use?, was wondering if they were one off, or from an earlier model morris ?.
l'd ike to come to see a hill climb or two aswell, could you tell me of any that may be taking place this year and the closest one to cambridgeshire - preferably that your latest morris will be at so i can see it in the flesh!.
thanks for the info, i totally beleive there are no lmiits after seeing what you've acheived in your workshop.
doug.